San Francisco 49ers at Pittsburgh Steelers: New Niners Look Like Old Niners

By Brett Michael Dykes

Sept. 20, 2015

49ers (1-0) at Steelers (0-1)

1 p.m. Line: Steelers by 6 ½

One of the biggest surprises to come out of the first week was that the San Francisco 49ers looked like, well, the 49ers in the course of beating the Vikings, 20-3, on Monday night. Many thought this would be the year the now Jim Harbaugh-less team would fall off the cliff, back to irrelevancy.

But Colin Kaepernick looked as dangerous as ever while also appearing in complete command of the offense. The defense looked as frenzied and suffocating as ever under its new defensive coordinator, Eric Mangini. With a victory against Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers, maybe, just maybe, the average football fan will learn the name of the team’s new coach (it’s Jim Tomsula).